State Rep. Robert Jones has introduced a 'hate crimes' bill in the State House. Since real crimes, 'hate' or otherwise are already illegal, 'hate crimes' bills serve to punish 'hate', i.e. thoughts and opinions that liberals don't like, whether or not there is anything hateful about them.
'Hate crimes' laws in Canada and Europe have been used to silence and imprison critics of 'gay rights'. Conservative author Mark Steyn nearly had his book banned in Canada after merely quoting a Muslim laying out his agenda. Even in America, Christians in Philadelphia were arrested and charged (later dropped) for peacefully protesting during a 'gay rights' parade.
Now Robert Jones wants to bring these laws to Michigan. Have no doubt that the left does not support free speech.
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Dear AFA-Michigan supporter,
State-level "hate crime" legislation, like its federal counterpart, would provide special legal status and protection based on homosexual behavior and cross-dressing that does not apply to citizens who don't fall into a special "protected class."
This legislation, if enacted, will be the mechanism by which homosexual activists pursue their expressly-stated intent to see individuals who dare publicly oppose their political agenda be criminally tried as accessories to any violent crime committed against individuals who engage in such behavior.
We'll keep you advised as these threats to free speech and equal protection under law proceed.
Gary Glenn
AFA-Michigan
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MICHIGAN MESSENGER
Lansing, Michigan
April 24, 2009
State lawmakers introduce bias
crimes legislation in the House
by Todd A. Heywood
Dan Levy, chief legal officer of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, announced today that two bills have been introduced in the state House to combat hate crimes. The bills, HB 4835 and HB 4836, were introduced by Rep. Robert Jones (D-Kalamazoo) and Rep. Woodrow Stanley (D-Flint), respectively.
HB 4835 will add additional sentencing for convictions on bias motivated crimes, while HB 4836 will expand the current Ethnic Intimidation Act to include such categories as handicap, gender identity and or expression, sexual orientation and political beliefs. Similar measures were introduced last session, and passed the Democratically controlled House 81-18. They were never taken up in the state Senate, and died at the end of the legislative session.“We are behind this 110 percent,” Levy said. “We have every intention of moving it along. We are hoping for June hearings to coincide with the Vincent Chin death.”
Chin, Levy said, was beaten to death on the eve of his wedding more than a decade ago because his assailants thought the Chinese man was Japanese and they were upset that Japanese cars were outselling American made vehicles.
The move also coincides with a move in Congress to pass the Matthew Shepard Act.
http://michiganmessenger.com/17667/state-lawmakers-introduce-bias-crimes-legislation-in-the-house
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